WATERVILLE, Maine — Since Amazon announced its intention to open a 159,000-square-foot delivery center, residents have had questions. Amazon responded by sending a representative to a planning board meeting Tuesday; about 15 residents attended.
This is unusual. Amazon is not generally involved in the warehouse building process, but Jonathan Greeley, who leads economic development for Amazon in New England, came up from Boston to address questions developers could not answer at a public information session in March.
Greeley said the project is part of a $4 billion investment Amazon made nationwide to increase its last mile network.
Greeley said most Amazon packages in Maine are currently delivered by third parties, and come from Connecticut and Massachusetts. A driver from a last-mile warehouse would deliver packages within about an hour radius of the facility, Greeley said.
“We want to make sure that the same Amazon quality of service that you get in maybe a large metropolitan area, you get in small cities and towns across the country,” Greeley said. “If we control the entire flow of an item making its way from a warehouse to your front door, overall, this is a better quality of service.”
At the previous public information meeting, residents shared concerns that USPS and FedEx could lose business and that employees could lose jobs to Amazon. Greeley said Amazon will continue to partner with USPS and FedEx, while also trying to improve service for Maine customers with faster delivery times.
Greeley also said that about 60% of Amazon retailers are small- and mid-sized businesses, and that Amazon also delivers to businesses.
The project site is already zoned for the warehouse, and Greeley said this is part of why Amazon chose Waterville for the project. Greeley said the city queued the land up for this type of development, and has the people and the partnership potential to make the project successful.
The 3.6 acre site borders Trafton and Junction roads and is within a quarter-mile of Interstate 95. The 159,000-square-foot warehouse, which would be Maine’s largest to date, would be on the Waterville side of the land, while the Sidney side would hold delivery van parking spaces and a stormwater management area.
Board member and former mayor Tom Nale said he remembers the process of preparing the area for commercial industrial development 40 years ago.
The project would expand public water lines by 3,100 feet on Trafton Road, and power by 4,200 feet. It would impact 2.67 acres of wetlands, which they’d plan to mitigate with the Department of Environmental Protection. Developers would also plant trees along Junction Road, and the planning board suggested they avoid oak after years of brown tail moth infestations.
Residents at the public information session also said they were concerned about traffic, and the impacts it might have on residents and roads.
Jason Libby, who leads the traffic team at VHB (Vanasse Hangen Brustlin), an engineering firm handling permitting, said over 80% of the trips will come and go via I-95. Libby said this likely includes employees who live nearby.
VHB also does not expect traffic delays to impact the area.
“It’s just a little-used road and it’s built for this,” Libby said of Trafton Road.
Amazon spokesperson Amber Plunkett wrote in an email that Amazon works hard to be a good neighbor.
“We’re in the very early planning stages for a new delivery station here which, if approved, would create local jobs and allow us to provide faster delivery of everyday essentials — from diapers for new parents to office supplies for a small business owner — right to customers’ doorsteps,” Plunkett stated. “Nothing is finalized yet, and we look forward to sharing more as we can.”
The facility, according to Amazon, would bring 150 to 200 full- and part-time jobs to the area. Some residents have raised concerns about the quality of the jobs, which they worry would offer minimum wage and poor working conditions. Others have said they’re excited at the prospect of new jobs and tax benefits for the city.
The project is in the process of a site plan review with the city and filing DEP applications before it officially files an application. It will go through the same process in Sidney in the next month or so.
The planning board is set to meet next at 6 p.m. May 26 at 46 Front St.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Abigail Pritchard can be reached at apritchard@centralmaine.com.